The Bureau of Statistics has failed

Jul 06, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
This letter provides my rebuttal to Dr. Gaskin-Peters based on her letter “The Bureau of Statistics explains” and is final on the subject since I have no time to waste. The initial letter was not an attack on Dr. Peters but a factual statement of the lack of timely, accurate and reliable statistics in this country. Whilst her and Lennox Benjamin are signatories to the said letter, it is questionable as to whether Lennox Benjamin is actually a co-writer since this lacks the eloquence and professionalism of his previous letters such as the “Challenge of country’s growth estimate was undertaken without single reference to the economy’s sectoral sources of expansion”.
My initial letter stated some comments the Minister of Business made at a GMSA luncheon recently. It is unfortunate that Dr. Peters would infer from my letter that I am against young people and women. This is far from the truth and Dr. Peters’ letter penned by her hand is thus evident of her unsuitability for the job of chairperson of the Stats Bureau and a reflection of her lack of professionalism. My sole concern remains the lack of current and accurate statistics and based on Ms. Peters’ response to my letter, I am even more convinced now that unless there is an injection of the appropriate skilled persons in the Stats Bureau, the situation will not improve. Someone with more relevant experience is needed at this stage. It is more evident that a competent chairman must be appointed since all Ms. Peters letter point to are excuses, delaying tactics and more of the same old rhetoric that keeps us in this backward state.
Dr. Peters was named the chairman in a media release and it is the chairman who is accountable for the performance of an organisation or lack thereof, and the fact that the Governor of the Bank of Guyana is on the board does not in anyway transfer the responsibility to him. It is evident that the Stats Bureau failed in its mandate to Guyana and the Guyanese public over the last 10 years. It is up to a new chairman to determine whether the current senior staff existed during that time and moreso over the last 3 years. If they were there, then the lack of performance in the delivery of statistics is due to them. Basic management practice dictates that these persons must be replaced by competent persons. Retaining or promoting any of these incompetent persons will not fix the problem.
Dr. Peters in her letter is still continuing to offer excuses for not having released the now outdated 2012 census data four years later. That speaks for itself.
H. Singh

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